Is this destiny?

~ Las Vegas, the base of the Army of Chaos ~

Sarah and Aiden are in the family room, facing thirty-three girls that they rescued from the basement which are still on the property.

During the day, Sarah noticed that the four girls are more strong-willed than the others, and they took leadership roles naturally. Those are Rosa from Venezuela, Esma and Azra from Turkey, and Panya from Egypt. And those four are right now sitting at the front, closest to Aiden and Sarah.

JoAnna is in the back of the room and observing. She is tired, but whenever she is by herself she starts crying, so she decided to stay around people, and she will rest later. Maybe.

"Meili, please step forward.", Sarah called.

All the girls looked toward the back where Meili is, and they made a path for her.

Meili walked toward Sarah in small steps. Since the previous night no one bothered her, no one even talked to her and she hoped that it will stay at that. A few minutes ago, Meili was surprised when Stacy entered her room and told her to join the meeting downstairs, and now she is being called out. What is this about?

Zoey got a chair from the dining room and gestured to Meili to sit on it.

Meili sat and faced the girls in silence. She could see that their expressions are not good. Some of the girls looked at her with hate and disgust while others refused to look at her at all.

Sarah broke the silence: "Last night we had an agreement that you will decide on a punishment for Meili. We established that she lied that Aiden assaulted her. You told me that I should be the one to determine the punishment, but I refuse. I refuse for two reasons. The first one is that I am too disappointed about her behavior and I am drifting between ignoring her or being harsh. Neither of those will do any good. And the second reason is that if she succeeded, you girls would suffer the most. If you don't trust us, you would not accept our help and you would be stuck here. Those are the reasons I believe that you need to decide. If you refuse, I will assume that you don't care and in that case, Meili will not be punished. I'm sure that by now, each of you thought about the punishment for Meili, so I want each of you to write it down on a piece of paper and put it in the box that Stacy is holding…"

JoAnna observed the scene from the back: girls are going toward the table to the side, writing down something for few seconds, and putting it in a box; Meili is sitting on the chair while hatred and anxiousness are obvious in her expression, reflecting her thoughts.

While looking at Meili, JoAnna remembered Vera and Martha and Regina and many others and wondered, is this how it starts? From a young age, they believe that they are entitled to something and that they should get it no matter who gets hurt in the process?

Suddenly, JoAnna was thinking about Stella and Edward and she was grateful that they spent time with her and taught her that she needs to work hard and that sometimes sacrifices need to be made in order to achieve happiness, and that she should not steal. What Meili did, isn't that stealing? She was trying to steal Aiden from Sarah, to steal a chance from all these girls to return home. But… what is the correct punishment for a person who acts like that?

JoAnna wondered what is the correct punishment for Vera? Should she punish her because she was trying to reach her goals using methods JoAnna does not approve of? And the biggest question was, would JoAnna care if Vera's target was not Jeff? As much is not moral, cheating is not a crime. JoAnna's heart tightened at the thought of Jeff cheating. She could not bear the image of his loving gaze and gentle smile directed at another woman.

JoAnna felt tears swelling in her eyes and she stood up and went to the restroom to wash her face with cold water. She can't allow herself to break down in front of all these girls. They were kidnapped and half of them were assaulted and compared to that, JoAnna's troubles are insignificant.

…

Sarah read the papers and sorted them out before announcing: "We have twenty-one filled papers. Among them, there are nine different punishments. Six are to slap her. Four are to shave her head. Three are to pluck her eyebrows completely. Two votes are to abandon her in the desert. Two are to abandon her in the red district of the nearest town. The other four are to: scar her face, cut off her toes, give her to the next Akmal's customer, and the last one is to let Akmal have her."

Sarah looked at Meili. "Do you agree with these?"

Meili frowned at Sarah. "This is a joke!" She turned to the girls and screamed: "You are evil! How can you wish something like this?"

Meili was about to stand up, but Stacy pressed against her shoulders, forcing her to sit down.

"Be quiet!", Sarah roared. "You should think about the consequences before you do evil things."

Sarah turned to other girls. "The thing is… Girls like Meili don't learn their lesson and they don't change their ways. We can punish her, and she will be angry, but that will only increase her hatred. Honesty and being a good person are things that are learned at a young age, and for Meili, it's too late. So, what do you suggest?"

Rosa lifted her hand, signaling that she wants to speak. "I suggest that we do the top three. Each of us should slap her, which will allow us to release some anger. And removing her hair and eyebrows will be a sign of shame which she will take with her home. I also believe that we should each write a letter to her family, explaining what Meili did and how it impacted us."

Sarah spread her hands toward the girls. "Who is in favor of this as a punishment for Meili, raise your hand…"

Sarah counted the hands and gave an approving nod to Rosa. "Your suggestion is accepted with a majority vote of…"

"No!", Meili screamed.

Stacy and Zoey tied up Meili to the chair while one member of the army of Chaos had a razor in his hand ready.

"We will need the tweezers also…", Sarah said.

"I have in my bag.", JoAnna said from the back.

Sarah clapped to get everyone's attention. "OK. Then we have everything. Let's hurry up so that we can finish this before dinner." Sarah glanced at the time and continued: "Number of guests will arrive in about twenty minutes, to join us for dinner. They are all good people who have my trust and I hope that you will enjoy the little dinner-event we are preparing… But first, form a line, and let's start with slaps. You get one slap each, make it count…"

Meili watched in horror as the girls lined up in front of her. Rosa first.

'PAK!'

"Aww…", Meili wailed.

'PAK!'

This one came from Azra.

'PAK!' 

Panya's smile showed that she is enjoying it.

There was a few seconds pause before the next one sounded…

Xiaohui gritted her teeth and went for it.

'PAK!'

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